Reuinon at the Pillars
by Tomlette
Summary: Warning, contains Defiance spoilers! Mortanius confronts Moebius at the Pillars of Nosgoth and confesses to using the Heart of Darkness. Please R&R.


**Reunion at the Pillars**  
  
Mortanius stood at the base of the Death Pillar, staring up at the great column as it stretched infinitely upward into the heavens, now grey with his own corruption. How long had it been since he had simply just stood this way by it? Too long, surely. Nupraptor's madness and the constant threat of the Unspoken overtaking him made time so hard to tell, not to mention his already long life span. He could recall the first time he stood among these columns, the first time he looked up at this one. It was so long ago. The Ancient vampires had surrounded him, fascinated. He had never been able to decide rather they were excited to watch the Pillar greet him as it's Guardian, or terrified by it.  
"Mortanius..." a soft, familiar voice spoke. He knew that voice. Not so long ago, he had many arguments with it. Now, he depended on it to guide his vampire creation to his tasks. He turned, and beheld the specter of Ariel; her own corrupted Pillar of Balance visible through her translucent body. It pained him slightly to see the missing portions of her face, and to remember how it came to look so. He reminded himself to be careful—she had to remain oblivious to his betrayal.  
"Yes, Ariel?" he asked, thankful for the Death Head mask which covered his face, and any emotion which may have slipped onto it.  
"He approaches," she said simply and then vanished into the Spectral Realm. Mortanius sighed and turned back to his Pillar. There were only two men to whom she could have referred, and Kain was not the one whom was expected.  
Mortanius stood, silent by the Pillar of Death, contemplating it as well as fighting off the demon that strove to control him. He could ever feel it in the back of his mind, clawing at his consciousness, which one of its swipes taking away a small part of his will to fight it. It wanted him—it wanted his body, for what purposes he could not tell but had come to fear. Fear...That was almost a foreign word to his mind. How often could he, the great Necromancer, claim to be afraid of anything? _It could end_, a voice, not his own, reminded him, _all fear, all pain, all regret could end. Give in, Mortanius...  
_  
_No...Not again...Not now...  
  
Then you will die.  
__  
_ Pain ripped through the Necromancer's body and flared through his brain. Mortanius groaned and leaned against the Pillar of Death for support as he fought it and fought the urge to give in to it. A shadow crept into his mind and threatened to overwhelm him. He defied it, and reached out with his mind to maintain control. At length, the pain receded and the shadow withdrew. Mortanius continued to lean against the Pillar. He'd won, that time. But next time...  
"You called for me, Necromancer?" came a familiar, mocking voice from behind him. Rage boiled up inside of the Guardian of Death an old, almost ancient memories rose to the surface of his temporarily freed mind. Mortanius turned to behold none other than the Time-Streamer himself—Moebius, Guardian of Time, and Mortanius' old partner in crime.  
"Yes," Mortanius said, and turned. He'd become skilled at faking his strength in body after an episode like that last. He wondered, not for the first time, if Moebius saw through him, and saw the weakness that truly ruled him. Mortanius hoped that he did—the same weakness, though in a different form, ruled Moebius as well. He had seen it. "How long has it been since you and I last spoke?"  
Moebius shrugged. His staff, a relic easily as old or older than the two of them, acted as a brace to the Time-Streamer. Mortanius knew better. "Some time," he said. His voice was polite, but his eyes were deadly. It was obvious that he believed his time could be better spent elsewhere.  
"Centuries," Mortanius stated. He began to walk towards Moebius. "At least, since we actually talked. He have spoken to each other on occasion, when it was necessary, such as at gatherings...But we have not actually spoken since we left the Citadel so long ago."  
Moebius eyes widened a bit, and he watched Mortanius with keen interest. It was unlike him to bring up that time. "We have had nothing to say to each other," Moebius said, his matter-of-fact tone stating that he had no more love lost for the Necromancer than Mortanius had for him.  
"Yes," Mortanius agreed. He was silent for a time as he continued to close the space between them. Then, once they were able to look each other in the eye, he broke his silence. "Until now, that is."  
"And what do we have to say now?" Moebius asked coolly. "What has changed between us so that I must listen to your foolish ramblings?"  
"We were wrong." The statement was simple, but spoken with such authority it made the Time Guardian step back. "We were wrong then, and wrong now."  
"Wrong?" Moebius blinked. "Wrong...? About...?"  
"The vampires," Mortanius explained, "All along, we were both wrong. We wrong to defy them, wrong to overthrow them...and now, we as a Circle are wrong to destroy them. We thought it was fairy tales, Moebius, but it wasn't. I have discovered the hardest of ways that the myths they spoke of were fact after all..."  
Moebius' eyes widened, and he snarled. "What?!" he yelled, "Is that what you brought me all this way for?! To tell me that you changed you're mind about a rebellion we lead hundreds of years..." A thought struck Moebius, and horror gripped him. No, Mortanius was a fool, granted, but he wasn't so foolish as to bring them together simply for this. There was something more here. "Mortanius, you old corpse, what have you done?"  
Mortanius was silent, but his smirk was visible beneath his Death Head mask. "Do you not know? Has the great Time-Streamer Moebius been so wrapped up in his own agenda that he forgot to check on the antics of his fellow Guardians? Nupraptor must have done quite a number on your mind for that to happen..."  
"What have you done?!" Moebius exclaimed again, though now both fear and anger mingled with his usual mocking tone. "What have you done to us, Mortanius?? Tell me!!"  
"An act which shall redeem us all," Mortanius explained humbly, "First for my part in the overthrowing and destruction of the vampires, and then for all of Nosgoth." He turned to the Pillars, but his focus now seemed to be that of the Balance Pillar. "One who will set things right again and save us all..."  
"What are you talking about?" Moebius hissed. Mortanius answered with silence, and so Moebius looked to the Pillars himself. He followed Mortanius' gaze to the Balance Pillar, and thoughts of Ariel came to mind. It had been somewhere around 30 years since her murder. Her replacement would be more than old enough to be told of his place among them. In fact, it struck him as curious that the new Balance Guardian didn't already...Moebius heart skipped a beat.  
"Where is the Heart of Darkness?" Moebius asked urgently. He looked to Mortanius hatefully, already afraid he knew the answer. "What have you done with it? You alone posses the power to use it, surely you know where it is now..."  
"I do," Mortanius agreed, and looked to Moebius. The mask had at some point been dismissed, and Moebius found himself looking into the eyes of one who had once lived among vampires, and had once lead all humans in their possession to freedom and to the downfall of the monsters. They were also tired eyes, old eyes...And in those eyes, Moebius found the answer he sought. Moebius stared in horror, and though there was no longer any need for him to say it, Mortanius claimed calmly, "A vampire stands in the Circle once again."  
"NO!" Moebius yelled, outraged. "This cannot be! How could you?! How could you betray all that we once worked so hard for?! You've damned us all, you fool!"  
"I did damn us all, once," Mortanius agreed, still calm in the face of the near hysteric Time-Streamer. "Long ago, and you helped. But this will redeem me...As it is not a mere vampire I have brought into being. It is the Scion of Balance." He turned back to the Pillar of Balance and then spoke as a dying priest might of his own fate, "And he shall set everything as it should be again..."  
Moebius stared, and then stepped backwards. "You are a fool, Mortanius," he declared as he raised his staff up. "He will try to destroy us all! And if it is death you so desire...Allow me to grant that wish."  
Before Moebius had a chance to mount an attack, however, the Necromancer spun and struck the ground beside Moebius with what appeared to be lightning. Moebius jumped, then turned and looked at Mortanius. His eyes were now blazing.  
"I brought you here to offer you a chance to redeem yourself as well," Mortanius said, his voice just as calm as before. "Despite the fact that you deserve any sort of death that Kain might give to you. But I can see that it was folly to even consider the idea." He gestured down the path. "Now go, Time-Streamer, back to your cauldron and your gimmicks in your caves. May they all serve you well, for your time is now short." He looked at Moebius. "And though your power is great, fortune-telling will do you little good against the immediate threat of my own power. So be gone, before you do something foolish." For a moment, Moebius stood still, contemplating his options. At length, he turned and began to leave. He knew that once his own creation had come for him, Moebius' Master would have his way with Mortanius, and then he would regret ever using the power of the Heart of Darkness. His soul would be delivered to the Wheel of Fate, and he would be greeted with the souls of all of those he had tormented and defiled with his powers, as well as be introduced to the error of his ways. Soon, Mortanius, very soon...  
  
_Author's Notes: I wrote this mainly to prove that I can do something besides parodies, and because I decided that I really like Mortanius. This is a short story, and the only one that will be published under this title, so don't expect another chapter. Let me know what you think please, via a review! Thanks, and I hope you enjoyed it! _


End file.
